It Is Well With My Soul
I was in Magnolia on Friday for the funeral of Cedric Smith. He was an amazing encourager and the church their and his family deeply miss him. My life was touched by his encouraging manner, and I am a better person for having known him. At the service, we sang “It is Well My Soul.” This deeply moving nineteenth century hymn has a beautiful history. The words were born out of Horatio Spattler’s sorrow and loss. Below is a famous telling of that story. You can visit Cyberhymnal to see this story or many others that lie behind your favorite hymns.
“When Mr. Moody and I were holding meetings in Ed in burgh, in 1874, we heard the sad news of the loss of the French steamer, “Ville de Havre,” on her return from America to France, with a large number of members of the Ecumenical Council, whose meetings had been held in Philadelphia. On board the steamer was a Mrs. Spafford, with her four children. In mid-ocean a collision took place with a large sailing vessel, causing the steamer to sink in half an hour. Nearly all on board were lost. Mrs. Spafford got her children out of their berths and up on deck. On being told that the vessel would soon sink, she knelt down in prayer, asking God that they might be saved if possible; or be made willing to die, if that was his will. In a few minutes the vessel sank to the bottom of the sea, and the children were lost. One of the sail ors of the vessel, named Lock urn—whom I after ward met in Scot land—while rowing over the spot where the vessel disappeared, discovered Mrs. Spafford floating in the water. Ten days later she was landed at Cardiff, Wales. From there she ca bled her husband, a lawyer in Chicago, the mess age, “Saved alone;” Mr. Spafford, who was a Christian, had the message framed and hung up in his office. He started immediately for Eng land to bring his wife to Chicago. Mr. Moody left his meetings in Edinburgh and went to Liverpool to try to com fort the bereaved parents, and was greatly pleased to find that they were able to say: “It is well; the will of God be done.”
In 1876, when we re turned to Chicago to work, I was entertained at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Spafford for a number of weeks. During that time Mr. Spafford wrote the hymn, “It is well with my soul,” in commemoration of the death of his children. P. P. Bliss composed the music and sang it for the first time at a meeting in Farwell Hall. The comforting fact in connection with this incident was that in one of our small meetings in North Chicago, a short time prior to their sailing for Europe, the children had been converted” (Sankey, pp. 168-9).
